Does anyone have a electrical diagram/schematic of a 2004 Hunter 426 sailboat showing the alternator and wiring? The owners manual says "alternator charges thru the starter" but this doesn't reallyhelp much. We wanted to have a spare alternator but it appears the previous owner added a Balmar 100 amp Dual Output Alternator (no longer made or available) and two large AGM house batteries. The Alternator feeds positive charge to both the House Bank and the Starer Bank at present. I'm trying to find a electrical drawing that shows the original Hitashi Alternator (single output) and wiring so if I do have to replace the alternator (it will happen if I'm not prepared). The owners manual covers the inverter and charger but not Yanmar alternator wiring. Can anyone help?
Hunter 426 Electrical - and Alternator
- Thread starter hatchmick
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In regards to the wiring, once changed by the PO the factory wiring schematic won't do you much good. You'll need to trace it down and re-draw it. The factory wiring from Hunter, Mainship or Luhrs was historically pretty undesirable anyway.
Having a spare Hitachi LR180-03C (no longer even made and the Chinese clones are pretty bad unless you build one from carefully chosen bare components) won't help you much as the B+ and B- cables on the Balmar are 5/16" hole lugs and the Hitachi frame uses 5mm B+ & B- studs. Also the Balmar is externally regulated, a significant improvement over the factory internally regulated Hitachi. Your original Yanmar wiring harness plug has likely been removed to facilitate external regulation so reinstalling a "spare" Hitachi won't be as easy a swap as it seems.. You may want to consider some spare parts such as a brush kit and bearings or a spare externally regulated alternator.
If that alternator is still using the dual outputs best to bus them together at the back of the alt and use an ACR to charge both banks. Still we'd need to see a drawing to really help..
Ok thanks, I'll probably end up doing something similar to what you suggest. I'll Jump the two outputs on the Balmar Alternator with a small battery cable and wire the positive output to the House Bank with a Balmar Duo-Charge unit (ACR -type) and to the starter bank. A have single output spare ready just in case. Sad, that I have to re-wire the 12 volt charging system just to have a spare Alternator. Oh well.
You're not rewiring the system to have a spare you're re-wiring it because it is a better system in the end... A spare externally regulated Hitachi mount alternator can be purchased in the $300.00 range.
Cabinet catch for many Hunters
These catches were common on Hunters from the Legend-era through today's Marlow-Hunters. We keep a large stock on hand for emergency shipments or just getting spares.
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